Once upon a time, way back in 2008, in a place called Bangalore, Sowmya the special educator, decided to step into the world of storytelling as a storyteller and then there was no looking back for her! Elephant stories are quite her favourite and so are brave girls. She believes in simple heartfelt stories and has a definite soft spot for chain tales too!

She uses storytelling, theatre techniques and craft to facilitate creative thinking in children through a venture called SoulSpace Storytell. She has created learning modules on social-emotional learning; built awareness on CSA for children using puppets, songs, and storytelling, and performed at storytelling festivals in India and Singapore. Her modules for adults through Muktha Foundation, integrating Positive Psychology, Storytelling and Mandala work was a unique offering for adults during the pandemic.

She believes in the transformative power of stories and storytelling and would like to spend the rest of her life gathering stories and books from around the world and using them for healing and recovery.  

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” ― Maya Angelou

Banumathy originates from a captivating town in South India, known for its remarkable cultural heritage and contemporary atmosphere, which perfectly reflects her own personality. She firmly believes that storytelling is an invaluable skill that improves listening abilities, fosters self-connection, and enhances communication with others. For nearly ten years, she has been sharing stories and leading workshops for individuals of all ages through her organization, Fables N Tales.

Banu's storytelling style seamlessly merges traditional and modern elements, creating an abundance of enjoyment. She has a particular fondness for animal tales and effortlessly transitions from one character to another, captivating her audience with her voice modulation and encouraging their active participation.

In addition to verbal storytelling, she also delights in narrating stories through finger plays and puppetry. Her talent has earned her multiple appearances on regional radio and television programs.

Through my organization, Fables N Tales for almost 9 years, I have been conducting storytelling sessions every week for children and leading them to story-related activities. I conduct training workshops for the school teachers to incorporate storytelling in the classroom and to use it as a tool to teach the students. I coach students and aspiring storytellers to tell bring out the storyteller in them. 

I share stories at the festivals and events to which I have been invited to. 

Telling stories using puppets, audience participation, and finger play are my forte

Ayushi Agrawal (Varanasi, India) has enjoyed singing and dancing since childhood. As an adult, Storytelling came naturally to her as it could encompass this and other arts! She has been working at a Krishnamurti school for three years and has done storytelling sessions for other schools as well. Online telling too helped her reach kids and families far and wide. Her storytelling style has been informed by Expressive Arts. Also coming from Applied Theatre forms like Theatre of the Oppressed and Playback Theatre, helped her create spaces for students across ages to be able to share and listen to personal stories. 

Lavanya Prasad (Bangalore, India) is an electrical engineer turned professional storyteller and believes that she makes better and long-lasting connections using stories than electrical wires. Her Organization Tale’scope has stepped into its ninth year and works with children and adults using stories as a medium. Lavanya loves to incorporate the Indian classical and folk elements of music and dance into her telling styles. She has been invited as a featured teller representing India, in many international storytelling festivals. Her project roots with senior citizens was acknowledged and appreciated by the Honourable Prime minister of India very recently.

Rona Mentari (Indonesia) has always been fascinated by stories since she was a child. She now loves telling stories through her one-of-a-kind storytelling performance, in which she uses traditional Indonesian techniques and her small guitar. Her passion and vision are to spread goodness and joy through storytelling.

Valentina Ortiz (Mexico) speaks the ancient Aztec words as well as the modern stories of Mexico. She has been on stage since she was 6 years old, as an actress, a musician and as a storyteller. She takes her stories to schools, assembly halls, parks and theatres in Mexico, the US and other parts of the world. She has published 4 books and produced 4 records with her original stories and music. She now deeply enjoys multilingual storytelling, Spanish, Nahuatl, English, French. Besides stories, her passion is music, percussion instruments of the world; she has been a drummer and composer for over 30 years, participating in many afro-Latino bands and playing in her own alternative projects.

I’m a bilingual storyteller, archaeologist and museum educator from Argentina. I love to interweave my three professions building bridges between material and immaterial cultural heritage through traditional stories from all continents. And I'm a very proud FEAST member, since I work a lot with Asian cultural heritage and some local Asian communities.

This year I’m looking forward to several projects:

• relaunching the monthly storytelling sessions that I organize at the Ambrosetti Ethnographic Museum in Buenos Aires (which where interrupted in 2020);
• teaching several workshops (online and in person) on storytelling, culture and folklore research and communication,
• celebrating the 26th year of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair Storytellers’ Meeting (I’m a proud part of the organizing committee),
• keep collaborating with FEAST’s Fulcrum and, last but not least, doing a lot of research for a new storytelling program.

Podcasting will also be an important featureof my year: April brings the second season of my storytelling podcast ‘En el laberinto’ (Inside the labyrinth), which - breaking news! - will include some episodes in English. I’m also part of a Spanish-Latin American podcast in which we cover different topics related to storytelling: ‘Iberoamerica de cuento’. It’s in its 5th season now and I'm elated I'm part of such a project. And you might/will also find me producing an episode or two of the wonderful Story Wok. I’m looking forward to it!

Many of these activities imply that you will find me online a lot. But I’m also very happy to say that if you are in Chennai in late August, we might meet face to face, since I’ve beem invited to perform in the 2023 Under the Aalamaram Storytelling Festival Coming all the way from Argentina will literally turn my world upside down: and I can't wait for that to happen!

NOR AZHAR ISHAK

I tell as per invitation to Festivals and Events (Literature or Children’s). There are events throughout the country but mostly centred around the capital city- Kuala Lumpur. Occasionally I get invited outside Malaysia but for the past two years, it was been mostly on line.

Since I am also a ‘Facilitative Trainer’, I am am part of a team of associates involved in Learning & Development Training. My specialisation is the Storytelling for business and also in education. Since my previous experience is teachers professional development, I also conduct teachers workshops and my focus is on the use of storytelling  in classroom and also Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) learning.

I am an active picture book author and illustrator so most of my story work would be in this area. Bringing stories alive in the form of picture books where words and art makes a compelling story is my favourite.

What I am looking forward to this year in terms of story:

1. To continue and finish my book on storytelling. I hope that this will help to give useful ideas and motivate more Malaysians to take up storytelling and share our country wealth of stories.
2. Share more stories to make them accessible, especially Malaysians. 
3. Continue to work on projects with librarians and universities to explore old Malay folklore and incorporate oral traditions like the olden days.

ALTON CHUNG

is an Asian American/Pacific Islander storyteller, a former President of the National Storytelling Network, who has been a (non-resident) supporter of FEAST since he participated in the very first meeting in Bangkok 2017 when Jeeva, Sheila and Roger first pitched the idea of forming an organisation which - at that very meeting! - was quickly dubbed FEAST.

We were grateful that Alton agreed to anchor Our 1st Corporate Story Gig performance this year ,despite having to perform at 6.30am in Hawaii (to meet the noon Washington showtime for our US client). He also presented an excellent webinar for us in 2019 Dragons and Heroines - Alton Takiyama-Chung. The Directors have also, from time to time, approached Alton to draw on his considerable organisational experience with NSN.

Apart from wanting to highlight a non-resident member of FEAST, we wanted to include Alton as an excellent example of a member who has made good use of his Personal PROFILE PAGE. (You can find any member's profile by going to Membership Directory and searching for them - or use this link to Alton.) Sadly, very few members have taken the time to do this, making it difficult for anyone to find out what kind of community we are! (When you join a group, don't you want to know who you are associating with?!)

Apart from his photo and contact details, he's also uploaded a distinctive banner and identified his interests in storytelling (all of which are searchable). Highlighting your interests enables people looking for a teller (eg for a Festival or for collaboration or an event) to find you. If you don't find an interest/skill/language or audience that caters to you, do let Roger know and we'll consider adding it to the list!

He's provided a useful PR bio, as well as a short-form version - these are useful to have and enquiries can easily be directed to your profile page if you do not have a website. Likewise, you can add your website and all your social media handles to your profile too.

Alton has also uploaded a couple of slideshows to showcase different aspects of his story work.

We hope you will be inspired by Alton to take time to start the New Year by updating your personal Profile page!